She lugged her defective bag to the gate and took a seat without even bothering to look for Tyler. She stared down at the ring on her finger. A fake diamond ring for a fake wedding. Tyler had bought it a couple of days ago. It was so cheap Hadley wouldn’t get it wet for fear it would turn her finger green or something.
How was she going to pull this off? Her phone chimed with a text from her best friend, Maggie, asking for an update on this nightmare adventure. Maggie already thought Hadley was taking a risk by going on this trip without having the promotion secured. She feared that Tyler might not hold up his end of the deal. What if Kellen wouldn’t agree with the change?
He’s sitting in first class without me, she texted.
Are you kidding me? Maggie wrote back.
Doesn’t matter. I’m going to enjoy my alone time while I can, Hadley messaged.
I swear if he doesn’t give you a promotion for this, you better quit. You’ve gone above and beyond! He’s a schmuck. Hot but a schmuck.
Hadley smiled. Maggie had developed this weird crush on Tyler after she stopped by one day to take Hadley to lunch. One look at him and she thought she was in lust. Hadley had popped her bubble real fast. Tyler wasn’t anyone’s Prince Charming.
“Thanks for getting me a coffee.” Tyler stood in front of her with his eyebrows raised. “And after you made me feel guilty for only thinking about myself.” He held out a new boarding pass. “Here, you’ll need this.”
He had upgraded her to first class and she suddenly felt like the schmuck. “You didn’t have to do that. I was only giving you a hard time earlier.”
He sat down in the empty seat next to her and took a deep breath. “I want you to know that I appreciate what you’re doing for me. I might not know how to show it all the time, but I want you to know I feel it.”
“Thanks,” she replied, staring down at her new boarding pass in her lap. Hadley had never flown first class. Her brother had once bragged about how he’d never fly with “the averages” again. Asher always had a way of making her feel small without even trying.
“Hopefully it won’t be torture.”
“It’s only two weeks and we’ll be working most of the time. It won’t be much different from any other day at the office. The only difference is you’ll have to be nice to me the whole time.”
Tyler’s brows pinched together. “Am I not usually nice to you?”
She hadn’t meant to offend. It wasn’t like Tyler was a tyrant, he simply wasn’t warm. He was all business, all the time. Which was fine with Hadley but one of the reasons everyone in the office liked Kellen better than Tyler. It was also a huge reason the staff asked Kellen to force him to take a break.
“You’re very focused. On whatever it is that you’re working on. Which is great,” she added. “It’s the reason 2K is doing so well as a company. But if we are supposed to convince your brothers that we’re in love, you’re going to have to make an effort to pay me a little attention.”
Tyler gave an understanding nod. “I’ll work on being extra nice.”
“The upgrade was a good start.”
“Well, maybe I’ll be a fast learner.”
He wasn’t the only one who would have to learn a thing or two. All she knew about Tyler was that he was the hardest-working person she’d ever met. She didn’t know what he liked to do in his free time, the little that he left himself, or what his favorite anything was. She knew practically nothing about the person sitting next to her.
It wasn’t like her to be going into something so woefully unprepared. She’d been following Tyler’s lead thus far, but his way seemed like a recipe for disaster.
“Speaking of learning, perhaps we should do a little getting to know each other before we face your family. I mean, I know how persistent your brothers can be. What if they have a lot of questions? What’s the plan here?”
“We’ll be on our own most of the time. I wouldn’t worry.”
Not worry? He didn’t know her very well if he thought she was capable of not worrying. Meeting the family was nerve-racking when she was the real girlfriend. Being the fake one made it a thousand times worse.
* * *
TYLER KNEW TWO of his brothers had way too much going on in their own lives to worry about his. Ben and Jon weren’t going to pry too much. Ethan, on the other hand, could be a problem. He was running the ranch presently, which made him troublesome. But there was one person who might be more of a hard sell than his brothers.
“I think the only person I’m really worried about is Katie, our ranch hand. Growing up, she was like the annoying little sister we didn’t ask for. Always in our business. Ratting us out for everything we did. She’s the one we might need to be wary of.”
Hadley paled. “Wait a minute, I didn’t realize we had to outsmart a woman. Not that I haven’t been nervous about pulling the wool over your brothers’ eyes,” she quickly clarified. “But women are more attuned to the intricacies of relationships. They pay attention to things like body language and the details that are shared with them.”
She had to be kidding. Katie was female, yes. But honestly, she was more like one of the guys than a woman “attuned to the intricacies of relationships.” Annoying? Yes. In touch with her feminine intuition? No.
Tyler chuckled. “Then maybe we should be more worried about Grace, my brother Ethan’s pregnant fiancée.”
“Pregnant!” Hadley was loud enough to attract the attention of more than a few people sitting near them. “Pregnant?” she repeated in a whisper.
Tyler was confused by her outburst. “What’s the matter with being pregnant?”
“Pregnant women are freaks of nature!” Hadley threw her hands up. “They have superpowers you can’t imagine. Do you even realize the amount of blood flowing through their bodies, feeding their brain? Not to mention the fact that all of their senses are in overdrive during pregnancy. She might be able to smell our lack of pheromones.”
Pheromones? Tyler was quickly reconsidering his lack of a plan. Not because he feared being unable to convince everyone because of Grace’s apparent bloodhound sense of smell but because Hadley was hysterical. He had chosen her because she was the smartest, most put together person in the office. He hadn’t expected her to lose it over pheromones.
He placed a hand over hers. “Look at me,” he said as calmly as he could. Her blue eyes locked onto his. The vulnerability he saw there was definitely new and created this strange sensation in the center of his chest. It was such a foreign feeling, he forgot what he was going to say.
“Are you going to tell me we’re going to be fine?” she asked.
That was it.
“We’re going to be fine. Grace and Katie will be preoccupied with a hundred other things while we’re there. We’ll just have to save our best stuff for the few times we’re around them, okay?” he said with a wink.
The tension seemed to leave her body as her shoulders relaxed and she gave him a small smile. “You’re right. We’ll be fine.” She thankfully sounded sure. “Good thing you got me that upgrade. We’ll have plenty of time to cram.”
“Cram?”
The gate agent announced they were ready to board first-class passengers. Hadley stood up. “Get ready to learn everything there is to know about me. I know I can’t wait to become a Tyler Blackwell expert.”
Tyler swallowed hard. No one was a Tyler Blackwell expert. He never let anyone get that close and he wasn’t sure he could start now.
* * *